The Next Big Thing: New Gene Therapies | Prescription Pets | Genes, Environment and Health | Artificial Blood Platelets | “Conscious” Cars | Discovering Terra Nova | New Ethics for Global Media | Education Goes Mobile | Fuel Cells

Artificial Blood Platelets

Dr. Ross MacGillivary, Director, Centre for Blood Research and Dr. Dana Devine, Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

The next big breakthrough in blood transfusion research will be increased availability of platelets that will make crisis-driven blood donor drives a thing of the past. Eventually, artificial platelets may eliminate the need for blood donors altogether.

It is a holiday Long Weekend, and the patient is experiencing complications from chemotherapy treatment earlier in the week. A call goes out to the hospital blood bank to supply several units of platelets to stabilize his blood clotting functions.

Then a familiar cry: DO WE HAVE ENOUGH PLATELETS?

Another familiar cry: WE NEED MORE BLOOD DONORS!

Despite being a mere cast-off from a large white blood cell called a megakaryocyte, the lowly platelet has life-saving properties that are particularly useful to patients who are at risk of bleeding. Platelets are an essential component of the mechanism that regulates the clotting ability of blood. The next big breakthrough in blood transfusion research will be increased availability of platelets that will make crisis-driven blood donor drives a thing of the past. Eventually, artificial platelets may eliminate the need for blood donors altogether. Such are the plans of the scientists in the UBC Centre for Blood Research (CBR).

CBR social scientist Ralph Matthews is finding out why only 3.5% of Canadians give blood on a regular basis. His group’s research will lead to strategies to get more Canadians donating blood. Present day blood banks only store platelets for 5 days before they are discarded because they become too old. CBR scientists Don Brooks and Jay Kizhakkedathu are improving the processing and storage of platelets so that platelets will grow old more slowly in new biocompatible blood bags.

As a result, the shelf life of platelets will be doubled to 10 days leading to more platelets in Canada’s blood banks and reduced costs to the health care system. In the long term, other CBR research will lead to an artificial platelet that can be used to add to a patient’s own low platelet count. Bleeding complications can be avoided until the patient’s own bone marrow has recovered to produce platelets himself. The artificial platelet will utilize a stable chemical scaffold to which functional biological materials will be attached.